Under the influence of the epidemic, foreign trade in 2020 experienced a trend of first decline and then increase. Foreign trade was slow in the first half of the year, but quickly picked up in the second half of the year, reaching a hot state, exceeding the market expectation.Container throughput at Shanghai Port will reach 43.5 million TEUs in 2020, a record high.Orders have, but a container is difficult to find, this situation, has continued until the beginning of this year.

Shanghai Port Waigaoqiao East Ferry staff revealed that the docks are operating at full capacity recently.In the yard, a large number of containers are stacked, in which the number of heavy containers containing goods outweighs the number of empty.

The boom in foreign trade has intensified the demand for containers, and the shortage of containers in the Inner River Port is very obvious. The reporter also visited the Shanghai Port of Anji, Zhejiang Province.

The reporter observed that many containers are shipped from Shanghai Port to Anji Port Wharf, and these containers are about to be sent to foreign trade enterprises for cargo assembly. In the past, the amount of empty boxes at Anji Port Wharf can reach more than 9000, but recently, due to the shortage of containers, the number of empty boxes has been reduced to more than 1000.

Li Mingfeng, one of the crew members on the river, told reporters that the waiting time for ships had been extended from several hours to two or three days because of the difficulty in deploying containers.

Li Wei, assistant to the general manager of Shanggang International Port Affairs Co., Ltd. in Anji County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, said that at present, it can be said that one container is hard to find, as all the manufacturing enterprises on feeder ships have snapped up empty containers, which can not meet the needs of the entire export business.

Due to the difficult allocation of containers, the waiting time for ships is 2-3 days.Containers are difficult to find, foreign trade enterprises and freight forwarders are anxious to turn around, not only is it difficult to find boxes, freight rates are also continuing to rise.

Guo Shaohai has been in the shipping industry for more than 30 years and is the head of an international freight forwarding company.In recent months, he has been worrying about finding containers. Foreign trade customers keep asking for boxes to transport goods for export, but containers are hard to find, so he can only keep coordinating with shipping companies to ask for boxes.Since September or October last year, there has been a shortage of boxes. This year, it is very serious. He can only ask the team to wait there, and all his business energy is focused on finding boxes.

Guo Shaohai bluntly, it is the off-season of shipping industry after October in previous years, but there is no off-season completely in 2020.Starting from the second half of 2020, the volume of foreign trade orders has increased substantially, far exceeding market expectations.But the outbreak has affected international logistics and the efficiency of overseas ports, with a large number of empty containers piling up in places like the United States, Europe and Australia. Containers that go out cannot come back.

Yan Hai, Chief Analyst of Shenwan Hongyuan Securities Transportation Logistics: The core issue is the low efficiency of staff caused by the epidemic. Therefore, terminals around the world, especially those importing countries in Europe and the United States, actually have a very long delay time.

A large shortage of containers in the market has caused shipping rates to skyrocket, especially on popular routes.Guo Shaohai took two pieces of freight sheet to the reporter to see, half a year more than the time of the same route freight doubled.For foreign trade enterprises, production can not stop, holding orders but a large number of goods are difficult to ship out, the financial pressure is very high.The industry expects the shortage of containers and shipping space to continue.

In the case of the spread of the global epidemic, the orders of China’s foreign trade enterprises are still growing, which is not easy, but there is also a shortage of container supply dilemma, how is the situation of foreign trade enterprises?Reporters came to known as the “chair industry of the township” Zhejiang Anji conducted an investigation.

Ding Chen, who runs a furniture production company, told reporters that the export demand in the second half of 2020 is particularly strong, and his company’s orders have been scheduled until June 2021, but the problem of delivery is always there, with a serious backlog of goods and heavy inventory pressure.

Ding Chen said that not only the rising inventory costs, but also more money to get containers. In 2020, more money will be spent on containers, which will reduce the net profit by at least 10%.He said that the normal freight is about 6,000 yuan, but now we need to spend about 3,000 yuan extra to pick up the box.

Another foreign trade company is under the same pressure to absorb some of it through higher prices, and much of it itself.In view of the various pressures faced by foreign trade enterprises, local authorities have taken various measures to serve them, including credit insurance, tax and fee reduction, etc.

Faced with the current situation of container shortage, ports attract empty containers through preferential policies, and shipping companies have also opened overtime ships to continuously increase their capacity.